If you are a beginner artist, be sure to refer to our Getting Started Guide. I particularly suggest you refer to my Snippet series on techniques. Now practice on a smaller scrap of canvas all the things that you need help with. This will help you have more confidence when you start painting.
Once you are familiar with the painting process, then refer to my vast YSO video collection and choose a few, simple landscape paintings and work with those until you are comfortable with doing a complete painting. NOTE: Stay away from doing wildlife or animals until you are more confident with your skills. Then later you can work on these more difficult subjects.
Try to be well rested and not rushed when you start. If you are tired, frustrated or in a hurry, the painting experience usually does not go very well. Painting is a mood thing –do your best to be relaxed so you can stay focused. (I never paint when I am tired or frustrated!)
Remember the 6-Foot Rule. Try to position your easel and a comfortable chair so that you can step back about 6 feet every few minutes. This will help you see and focus on work you just did.
Keep your eye level at the center of the canvas as much as possible. You will paint and see your brush strokes more accurately and this also cuts down on fatigue if you are not constantly straining when trying to look up and down.
Take breaks often to rest your mind and study your work.
If you get stuck on a particular area or object in the painting – Stop painting and get a scrap canvas and practice that subject until you feel comfortable — or go to my snippet series and/or other YSO instructional videos with similar subjects and practice before you proceed further on your painting.
Remember painting is a process so take your time, be patient, practice, study, research, and pre-plan your painting as much as possible by making simple sketches to work out composition, design, perspective, color scheme, season, time of day, atmosphere, etc. Of course, things can change or evolve as your painting progresses, so “Roll with the flow but prepare as much as you can beforehand.”
If your painting is not working out, don’t panic. You will not be able to create a perfect painting each time. Just stop working on it and put it aside. Then start another one. If you keep working on a painting, you are struggling with you will only get frustrated and want to quit. In fact, the national average for a professional artist is to produce 1 good painting for every 7 they do. I have numerous paintings in my studio that are unfinished because they did not turn out. So, I have learned to either paint over them or set them aside.
Make sure you have good, even light. Do not use spotlights. Try to have florescent lights with one warm and one cool bulb. This creates an even light with no shadows.
I recommend you have a color wheel and a gray scale finder handy. These are great tools for working out value and color issues.
